Wirth Consulting

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Review: Enterprise-Ready A4 Color MFPs – HP’s Officejet Pro 476dw is Best in Class

by · April 22, 2014

There was quite a selection of quality “Enterprise-Ready” A4 MFPs in the group of devices that comply with our conditions below, are priced from $399.99 to $9,400.00, and in color print speed from 15 to 40 ppm. Determining a Best in Class winner from this group was a difficult proposition, with 16 MFPs from Brother International, Canon, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, Lexmark International, OKI, Ricoh, Samsung, Sharp, Toshiba, and Xerox, with imaging technologies including laser and LED-array (dry toner), plus solid and aqueous ink.

What is our definition of “Enterprise-Ready”? The ultimate capabilities for said device is the ability to be remotely set-up, secured, managed, and maintained from a central location. An Enterprise-Ready MFP must also have other physical requirements as follows:

Wirth Consulting Usage Definitions

  • SOHO (Inkjet) = Network interface, duplex printing and automatic document feeder for AiO/MFP models.
  • SOHO (Laser/LED) = Network interface and automatic document feeder for AiO/MFP models.
  • Business Class = SOHO plus can support more users; higher maximum and recommended monthly volumes; faster print speeds; expandable standard media capacity exceeding 251 sheets; higher ink or toner capacity.
  • Enterprise = Business Class plus US Legal-sized platen, duplexing automatic document feeder for MFP models, PCL and/or PostScript print drivers, and remote management, deployment and security capabilities.

Aside from the required feature set for this group, value-add features were manageability, security, image quality, print speed, ease-of-use and maintenance, and Cost per Page and Total Cost of Ownership. All things considered, HP’s Officejet Pro X476dw with its PageWide print head was deemed Best in Class based on the following criteria:

  • Very low Cost per Page and Total Cost of Ownership.
  • Very low energy consumption and noise output.
  • Very easy and low maintenance and high-capacity ink cartridges (9,000/6,200 ISO pages).
  • Outstanding tested print quality, print speeds, and image permanence.
  • Internet connectivity, downloadable business apps, and a host of mobile and remote printing solutions.
  • Support for HP management, deployment, and security solutions.
  • Supports a wide variety of printer languages and operating systems.

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